Mets Spanish-Language Radio Broadcasts To Air On ESPN Deportes N.Y. Next Season

The Mets and ESPN Deportes N.Y. 1050 on Thursday announced that the radio station will broadcast Mets games in Spanish for the '13 season. Under the agreement, the station will broadcast 150 regular-season games, including select games from spring training and the postseason. Coverage also will include pre- and postgame shows for each game (ESPN). In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes the deal is "another clear signal the bidding and wooing between CBS Radio Network and ESPN Radio for New Yawk-language Yankees and Mets rights will be intense, as both teams’ deals expire with CBS-owned stations after this season." Due to price re-structuring, WCBS "pays between $12-$15 million per season for Yankees rights." Sources said that it is "a money-losing deal." The Mets receive "roughly half that from WFAN, now fully owned by CBS." A source said, "The New York Hispanic market is large and sports-minded. It can carry its advertising weight. And it’s a largely urban audience, so 1050’s poor night-signal isn’t as harmful.” Mushnick notes beyond that, Citi Field this season "will include a radio booth carrying a sign that identifies its inhabitants as employees of ESPN-NY." To ESPN -- and, "no doubt, to WFAN -- that’s big." Mushnick: "And there’s more where that came from" (N.Y. POST, 12/14).